For tomorrow. (IO NK)

Ketsueki Awoke from his rest, his puppy Mitsukatta resting on his chest, His window was wide open, allowing the air, birds, and sunlight to awake him, despite the fact that the light only ever became lukewarm in the village hidden in the mist. Ketsueki woke to the light. Feeling the weight of his puppy Mitsukatta on him, he realized soon enough that he couldn't just sit up and begin his day, still not used to having the puppy sleep on his bed. The cotton stuffed bed not being good enough, apparently. He started to shimmy out of the bedsheets, letting himself fall to the floor only to land silently on his hands and knees much to his boon, Mitsukatta was barely roused by his movement allowing him to further plan his next few days, Mainly his genin exam.

Today was purely for readying himself for the exam and the day after would consist of making up for inequality. The boy had an idea to begin, he got dressed quickly and smirked at Mitsukatta who was still asleep. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out the puppy's ball. In one moment he was on his side, eyes closed. And in the next he was upright, focused intently on Ketsueki's hand "So, this is how we're going to do this. We're going to be playing a little game of keep away." He said with a smirk as Mitsukatta's tail stopped wagging.

 Ketsueki shoved the ball in his mouth and wove sign Dog Boar Ram. In a moment he became not only a puff of smoke but in another moment he was in the very form of his companion. And from thereon it was the begin of their battle. Ketsueki leaping onto the bed in front of Mitsukatta and then right up to the window and out, the dog immediately followed suit, his prized ball spurring him along further than his body would normally have cared to go. Ketsueki was ahead, blazing the trail and occasionally weaving around the few crack of dawn workers and the few early bird academy students nearly as devoted as Ketsueki himself if only for today.

Just as he had got to the bridge to the Academy Mitsukatta began to gain on the boy, eventually forcing Ketsueki and himself to be neck and neck to each other. Eventually, however the two came to their destination, The ninja academy. Where he would be proving himself the day after as a ninja. And that was the end all. Wasn't it. 

The more he thought about it since speaking to Jayce. His own plans, his own desires. It couldn't have been more clear cut. Could it? He wanted to be strong as a ninja, strong in independence. Not as a teammate. He longed for the kind of ability and skill that could only be accomplished by the self, and as a ninja he could. No. He would. But soon, he was taken out of his trance, just before he reached the door he was tackled by Mitsukatta, the ball falling out of Ketsueki's grip. The puppy immediately took the ball, beginning to chew on it as Ketsueki shook his head just as he returned to his original form in a puff of smoke, panting as he sat up. "I guess that's the best way to wake you up. Maybe now you'll pay attention when I tell you too." He stands, Walking to the door "Come." 

Mitsukatta in tow, he enters his barren classroom. Taking his usual seat. Today was all reviews, As has been the norm for the entire past week. The point being to make sure any students willing to arise in rank were suitably trained for the genin exam. Which at least Ketsueki was. As class concluded Ketsueki allowed the halls to flood with many faces, not his, however. He would wait a bit and leave, looking around a bit before he made his way to his true point of interest, the training room. Till he was halted that is, once he took a step, expecting the herd to move another inch again he bumped into the back of a boy in front of him amid the cells of children all circled around the lockers, leaving little room for even he. "Excuse me." He said, clearly. Despite the sound of lockers slamming and chatter, Ketsueki's voice dashed through noise like a knife. Without even a bit of a raise in octave.

Aota woke up in the morning, and sits up, popping his back real quick. He stands up, and carefully makes his way to where his jacket is. He does a slight grin as he sees one of the young orphans curled up with it covering her body. He grabs a ratty blanket from nearby, that had been cast aside from one of the other orphans. He grabs his jacket from the girl, and quickly covers her with the blanket. He shrugs the jacket on, glad for the warmth that it gave him.
He walks down to the kitchen, and grabs some oatmeal and a big pot from one of the cabinets. He begins making some oatmeal for the orphans. As soon as he starts spooning oatmeal into bowls, the first orphan shows up. He grins as it's the little orphan girl that was using his jacket as a blanket. 
"You stole my blanket!" the little girl declared. Aota laughs at the little girl and says, "But it's my jacket. Here you go."
He hands a bowl and spoon to her, and she scurries off to the table. He spoons out more bowls of oatmeal, and then grabs his own bowl and spoon, making his way to the table as well.
"Hey, you're in my chair," Aota tells the little girl. She giggles at him, and scoots over, allowing Aota some room to sit down in the same chair as her.
Other orphan kids began filtering out of the rooms where they rest their heads, and grabs bowls of oatmeal and begins eating at the table. Aota finishes up, and puts his bowl into the sink.
"Alright, guys and gals, you know the drill. Clean and be quiet," Aota states. "I'll see you guys later."
He makes his way to the academy, where he sits through classes. Basic reviews for the exams today for those who had plans on taking it soon.
As class ended, and everyone got up to leave, Aota rose up, and began making his way to the training rooms. As he was waiting for the herd to move, someone from behind bumped into him. He hears them say excuse me, and he turns to see who it was. A young boy, looking to be 10 or 11, had bumped into him.
"No problem. It's always seems to be crowded when classes end, everyone trying to escape this place. I'm just heading off to the training room for some jutsu practice." Aota responds, as he steps forward, starting to make a way through the crowd. A way opens for the 16 year old, as a lot of these were young kids ranging from 8 to 12.
He makes his way to the training room, and stretches out his body, thinking about what jutsu he should practice today.

[wc 469]

Ketsueki nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't mind if any of them were in a rush to do something productive. Maybe learn how to throw a punch?" He sighed. "Everyone here will usually leave all of this opportunity behind, The training room, the library, the teachers. So much knowledge and it's lost to them." He realized halfway through his little rant that his conversational companion had left, easy to see in the crowd because of his height, but Ketsueki couldn't just pass through the crowd that completely engulfed him. Until he realized his extraordinary agility from transformation training allowed him to reach impressive heights, deciding to test this, he sent Mitsukatta ahead, the puppy easily navigating past the children and their other furry training partners. 

He wove sign underneath his jacket in the crowd with perfect accuracy, despite the fact that he'd begun to be jostled around by the ebb and flow of the children. He had disappeared in a plume of smoke, returning in the form of his faithful dog. He was proud of himself for this idea. But only if it worked. He looked around for an opening, a child with a cargo bag, perfect. He jumped onto it, then onto the boy himself, he panicked of course causing chaos but on a relatively minor scale. The boy in pup form then began playing an odd form of hop scotch on the shoulders and heads of various ninja children until he was aHEAD of the horde. 

Dispelling the jutsu and continuing on his way, until he realized he was being chased and that the tall boy was nowhere to be seen, He and Mitsukatta bolted as fast as they could, the numbers they had proved to make them sluggish, taking a sharp turn the boy revealed his pass to the ninja and dove headlong into the training room, rolling as to not hurt himself using his hands and forearms. Mitsukatta was much less dramatic, All Ketsueki heard after the door closed was angered yelling of other students and a chunin instructor chewing them out after they realized where they were. "Well. That was a lot of fun." He said, standing up and looking around, shocked to see the tall boy from before. "I stand correct." He said looking up at Aota.

Noises of anger gets Aota attention to the door, as he sees Ketsueki and his dog make it into the training room, closing the door behind them. He grins at the boy's comment. 
"So, since we both made it here, want to practice some jutsu? I have a few in mind that i would like to get through, and it's always good to have a partner when it comes to  practicing jutsu."
He would casually walk across the training room, and turn and face the boy and his dog. He would shrug his shoulders, getting them loose and say, "So what do you say? Do you have anything that you need to practice jutsu wise? I'll let you go first, then I'll do some of my own jutsu training, then we'll go back to  you. Go back and forth a few times, and by the time it's time to leave, we could practice a lot of jutsu.

[twc 626]

"I do need to practice the clone jutsu. Not that I've been slacking but, I haven't found too many applications where I can use it." He said, hands slowly disappearing out of his sleeves and into his jacket. "You seem like you would be practicing something a little more advanced than me. But I'm glad to help you as well." He had it in his mind that this one student who appeared to be his senior was likely on par, maybe stronger than the Uzumaki by age and height alone. It escapes him still that being a ninja was still commonly seen as a choice of lifestyle. It wasn't for him. "Alright. So, here goes." He wove sign inside his jacket. Ram Snake Tiger, and from nothing came a plume of smoke, soon to be replaced by a perfect replica of the boy. "Do you know how to make more than one at a time? I tried before but the second usually comes out with some imperfection."

Ketsueki didn't really take the silence well. His display barely even registered, and so he continued his training, his mind obviously raging internally. Dispelling his clone he walked to the moving target range. Grabbing his training kunai and narrowing his eyes, 5 in total. Mitsukatta walked to the edge of the indoor field, pulling the lever next to the entrance to it. The targets, painted ring bulls eyes began to shift from side to side 10 yards away from the boy. He took stride after stride to the twelve foot mark and took a breath, readying himself. 

He brought his hand containing the kunai to his side before whipping his arm across his chest, releasing them halfway through the swing and throwing them toward the center most target, each one landed near perfectly around the core circle. Of course it was around the circle and not around meaning the boy was fuming. All five made a misshapen circle around it, leaving him inches away from perfect. He stormed over, retrieving his blades and walking back. This time to the thirteen foot line. He then decided to aim at all 9 of them. He was aiming for every other one and he grabbed the tips of his kunai with one hand and aimed one by the handle with the other. He hit every target! The only issue is once more they were off kilter and hit the edge of each perfect bulls eye. Ketsueki ground his teeth in anger.

Retrieving the blades once more walking to the fifteen foot mark and throwing the blades in the same pattern as before, allowing them to sing through the air as he released them into the air. They hit the sides once more, Again. This time at twenty feet. He hit the mark, off by a few centimeters. He let out a yell and went out once more, this time to the edge, 32 feet. He winded  his arm back, took a breath and then threw the kunai at the targets, and this time it landed on the ground, at least 9 feet away. He narrowed his eyes, so aggravated he could barely think. 

He began to walk forward, throwing more kunai, Once at the 20 mark, a miss by inches. Another at the ten, Another near miss. Another at five. Just off the mark. He let out a yell and ran to the target, stabbing it as deep as his still small body could muster. Almost to the handle. He stood there and hung his head as the entire motions of the targets stopped. His hair covering some of his face as he didn't dare look up. He didn't deal with silence well at all.

(Exit)